Israel’s Dilemma: Refugees or Migrants?

The Left has been pressing very hard to stop the deportation of tens of thousands of African work migrants, who illegally entered Israel. There are multiple and complex factors involved in this issue. It is replete with disinformation and dis-disinformation. Let us peel the layers of the onion and try to make some order.

The main factor at fault for the situation that has been created is the Netanyahu government. For years, Israel’s entire southern border was left wide open and convoys of infiltrators rolled right in. Now we are dealing with the results of this anarchy. True, the government is attempting to deal with the problem - but in a completely improbable way.

There is a kernel of truth in the claims of the leftist organizations pressuring the government to leave all the infiltrators here. Jews are commanded by the Torah not to deliver a slave into the hands of his owner. A very small percentage of these people are, indeed, refugees, and we are responsible for their lives. We do not have to keep them here forever and we do not have to grant them citizenship. We do have to take care of them and provide them with decent living conditions, secluded, so that they do not threaten Israel’s citizens. Ultimately, we must find a solution for them in one of the countries that needs this type of immigration. Europe, for example. I asked many infiltrators if they would go to Europe if they had $15,000 in their pockets. They answered that they would certainly go. This is an absolutely practical option for the refugees.

Another option: These refugees do not come directly from Rwanda or South Sudan. They come here from a country that is not committing genocide. Nobody has swum to Israel or has parachuted into our country. All of them come through Egypt. Why don’t we return them to the country that is not oppressing them or threatening their lives? It is a political consideration. We do not want to destabilize the peace agreement with Egypt.

Israel does not have an international problem with these refugees, because we do not border on their countries. The entire problem is caused by the ridiculous machinations of a government that has lost its way.

Why is the government looking for all sorts of convoluted solutions? This is where the disinformation comes in. IDF reserve-generals, now in the private arms business, get authorizations from their cronies in the Defense Ministry to export Israeli arms to African dictatorships and make big money (privately, not for Israel). The potential victims flee via Egypt to Israel – and then we pay $5000 per person to the king of Rwanda, who is a despicable mass-murderer, so that he will be kind enough to take them back. We are turning into a country that funds and nurtures horror regimes.

The vast majority of these infiltrators, however, are not refugees, but rather work migrants. They must simply be deported. Even the High Court agrees. We must get to the bottom of this issue and separate between those who are truly refugees and should receive more gentle treatment as described above and those who are work migrants, who deserve nothing and should be deported.

We are a Jewish state. We are not a state of all its citizens, like the US, for example – and the US does not take in every refugee or work migrant, either. We are a Jewish state and thus, even if we do take in refugees, we should not grant them citizenship, but rather, treat them decently and offer them a better situation elsewhere. We need to preserve a solid Jewish majority and Jewish social fabric in our country.

Nobody dares to say these things, creating a vacuum. It is into this vacuum that all the leftist organizations enter and press for their state-of-all-its-citizens/anti-deportation agenda.

When we are committed to our own solid Jewish identity, we will have the fortitude to deal with the infiltrators and the host of other problems plaguing Israel.